Some synthetic CDOs, tied to credit-default swaps on corporate bonds, are trading at less than 10 cents on the dollar, according to Sivan Mahadevan, a derivatives strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York.

LONDON (AP) - Oil prices fell below $70 a barrel Wednesday as investors shrugged off a looming OPEC production cut after company forecasts suggested the U.S. may be headed for a severe economic slowdown that would crimp demand for crude.

Several major US banks are leaning toward spending a portion of their federal rescue money on acquiring other financial firms rather than for issuing new loans, the primary purpose of the government's $250 billion initiative to invest in banks.

As people around the country respond to financial and economic hard times by juggling the cost of necessities like groceries and housing, drugs are sometimes having to wait.
"People are having to choose between gas, meals and medication,"

Many mayors have 10-year plans to end homelessness and had reported progress until this year. The most recent official count, in January 2007, found 671,888 people living on U.S. streets or in shelters, down 12% from January 2005.

The Fed said it will lend up to $540 billion to new special entities that will stand ready to buy up that short-term debt from money market mutual funds. The central bank is relying, as it has repeatedly this year, on a Depression-era authority that

A global recession may be around the corner and world labor markets have yet to feel the full impact of the credit crisis, the chief executive of global employment services company Manpower Inc. said. "The globe is finding its way into a recessi

The Nasdaq Stock Market's decision to suspend one of its own listing rules comes as an avalanche of company's shares tumble below the $1 threshold, and is intended to avoid the mass delistings that followed the burst of the dot-com bubble.

Casino companies’ earnings are plummeting by double digits. Debt costs are rising for many companies. And their customers are spending less.
In the financial world, in this economy, those are the trend lines of doom.

The Tracinda Corporation, Mr. Kerkorian’s investment company, said Tuesday that it sold 7.3 million shares of Ford on Monday at a huge loss and intended to further reduce its remaining 6.09 percent stake.

By taking a minority stake in financial services companies, the US Treasury has become the managing partner. We are, and will be, treated to a textbook example of how economies cannot be centrally-planned.

"It's not possible for the eurozone to continue without clearly identified economic governance," he told the European Parliament on Tuesday. The leaders of the 15-nation eurozone should coordinate their actions with the European Central

A turf war is brewing among 3 leading federal agencies that have contrasting visions for how the $55 trillion market for speculative financial instruments known as credit-default swaps should be regulated.

The Treasury Department hopes to spur a new round of mergers by steering some of the money in its $250 billion rescue package to banks that are willing to buy weaker rivals, according to government officials.

In the midst of highly unpopular bailouts of Wall Street, many justifications have been given about why Washington feels the need to act. Some claim that capitalism and the free market are to blame, but we have not had capitalism or a free market.

Jacob Weisberg has an unbelievably asinine article blaming the Wall Street collapses on libertarianism. We who believe in individual liberty supposedly brought on this recession. It is hard to grasp that someone could actually believe this. Perhaps s

Every other card issuer, from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to Capital One Financial Corp., is grappling with the same problems as more consumers shut their wallets and fall behind on their bills. American Express is especially vulnerable...

20 million jobs will disappear by the end of next year as a result of the impact of the financial crisis on the global economy. Construction, real estate, financial services, and the auto sector are most likely to be hit, according to the

Interbank lending emerged from deep freeze and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke gave his blessing to a second US government bailout stimulus package, providing hope the world's financial crisis may be easing. The 3-month Libor rate fell more than

Confronted with a hugely expensive economic crisis, Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike have elected to pay the bill mainly by borrowing money rather than cutting spending or raising taxes. The cost will become a bigger burden